NEWS RELEASE from the United States Department
of DefenseNo. 597-05IMMEDIATE RELEASEJune 13, 2005Media Contact: Army Public Affairs - (703)
692-2000 Public/Industry Contact: (703)428-0711

DoD Identifies Army Casualties

The Department of Defense announced today the
death of two soldiers who were supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
They died June 11 in Al Taqaddum, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device
detonated near their military vehicle.

Killed were:

Specialist Casey
Byers, 22, of Schleswig, Iowa. Byers was assigned to the Army
National Guard's 224th Engineer Battalion, Ottumwa, Iowa.

For further information related to this release,
contact Army Public Affairs at(703) 692-2000.
A former Fort Hood soldier killed in Iraq has been laid
to rest at Arlington National Cemetery.

Thirty-five-year-old Sergeant First Class Neil
Prince of Baltimore was killed June eleventh by a roadside bomb. He leaves
behind a wife of nearly ten years and a four-year-old son.

Prince, who was awarded a Bronze Star and a
Purple Heart, was a month away from the end of his tour in Iraq when he
died.

His wife, Suzette, says she's angry about the
circumstances that led to her husband's death. Prince was on an unusual
trip out of the safe zone when a bomb exploded directly beneath his armored
Humvee.

Prince was the 148th person killed in Iraq
to be buried at Arlington.
Baltimore soldier killed in Iraq buried at Arlington Cemetery

Sregeant First Class Neil Armstrong Prince,
a native of Jamaica who grew up in Baltimore, was buried Tuesday at Arlington
National Cemetery, 11 days after being killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq.

"I could put him in charge of anything and
he could handle the mission," said Command Sergeant Major Dwight Morrisey,
Prince's former First Sergeant at Fort Hood, Texas. "I wouldn't be surprised
if he was actually in charge of that convoy someday."

Prince, 35, died June 11 in Al Taqaddum, Iraq.

After the firing of 21 shots, soldiers handed
American flags to his father, Cecil Prince, and his widow, the former Suzette
McLeod, who held their 4-year-old son on her lap.

"You hear about soldiers dying every day and
you feel bad, but you're so far removed until it hits you yourself," Prince's
youngest sister, Shane Prince, 32, told The Washington Post.

Prince joined the Army after graduating from
City College in 1989. As a chief fire control sergeant in the 2nd Battalion,
17th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort
Carson, Colo., Prince arranged the transportation of weapons to troops
in combat, Morrisey said.

"He is like the brains of the artillery," Morrisey
said. If military units needed firepower, "He was the one that would send
it."

Earlier Tuesday, during a service at Aberdeen
Proving Ground, Staff Sergeant Keith Gavin said Prince was on a path to
becoming a great military leader.

"He loved training troops," Gavin told The
(Baltimore) Sun after the service. Gavin had befriended Prince while both
were at Fort Hood in 1999. "He was direct and fair."

The service at the Main Post Chapel at APG
is believed to be the first at the proving ground for a soldier killed
during the war in Iraq, The Sun reported. APG officials could not recall
the previous funeral there for an active-duty soldier.

"We seldom ever have a funeral here (because)
we have such a small contingent of active-duty soldiers," said Patricia
McClung, a spokeswoman at the proving ground.

Suzette Prince, 31, a nurse at Kirk U.S. Army
Health Clinic at APG, said she met her husband as an Army medic. She spoke
of him as a man who adored their son, Jordan.

"Number one, he loved his son," she said after
the service in Aberdeen. "He wanted everything for his son."

She and Jordan are living with the sergeant's
parents in Forest Hill in Harford County.

Prince will be awarded the Bronze Star and
Purple Heart posthumously, a cemetery spokeswoman said.